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AI Might Take Fake News to the Next Level with Real Looking Videos

Telling the difference between real and fake news might soon get a lot harder. The AI-computing company NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) claims to have created artificial intelligence (AI) that can totally alter videos.

The new AI can change day to night on videos and add weather such as snow, TNW reported. If that was not creepy enough, NVIDIA also claims to have an AI that can produce photograph-quality images of people that do not exist.

That means we might soon pictures or videos of fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes and Batman walking around in the real world. There are also many ways that technology can be abused to take fake news to the next level.

An obvious one would be videos of politicians or candidates engaging in unethical, offensive, or illegal behaviors. An example would be a fake video of President Donald J. Trump (R-New York) harassing a woman, having sex with a child, or attending a Nazi rally. Another example of such an attack would be “video” of Hillary R. Clinton taking money from obvious Russian or Chinese agents.

Mind-Boggling Ethical and Philosophical Implications

The ethical, legal, and philosophical implications of such capabilities are mind-boggling. Would anybody be able to trust any video or news when such tech becomes available?

After all it would be possible to generate a phony newscast or news clips in a real anchorman such as CBS’s Jeff Glor presents fake news as real. Or what about a fake CNBC news clip; complete with a real personality such as Jim Cramer, promoting a pump and dump scam?

Finally, what about copyright and artistic integrity? What would stop fans that dislike the current Star Wars movies from creating their own films complete with real actors like Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams? Other fans might redo the recent dreadful Justice League movie by adding the Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, or the Black Canary, to the team, changing the villain, or even having Michael Keaton or Adam West play Batman.

Then there’s the danger to classic movies and TV shows somebody might recreate Casablanca; with Errol Flynn or Matt Damon planning Rick. Worse, fans might have the TARDIS materialize on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise for a Doctor Who/Star Trek mashup. Such mashups are already widespread on YouTube, now pranksters and fans can take them to the next level.

Beyond fans there are greedy corporate executives that own copyrights. Disturbingly, the TARDIS on the bridge of the Enterprise scenario I mentioned actually occurred in a British comic book. That and the recent Star Trek and Star Wars movies, prove just how willing big business is to desecrate classic stories and characters for the fast buck. Now such desecration might become cheaper and easier than before.

Will truth, copyrights, and artistic integrity be the next casualties of artificial intelligence? We might soon find out because this genie is apparently already out of the bottle.